Gov. Mark Sanford's call to the state's public safety agencies to find ways to cut costs is appropriate, considering this state's still shaky revenue picture. But there are two agencies -- the Department of Corrections and the Department of Juvenile Justice -- that have among the least tolerance for additional funding cuts in state government. They should be spared.

Corrections is understaffed, underfunded and overcrowded.

The state Department of Juvenile Justice broke the grip of eight years of federal oversight through its embrace of new programs that reformed an agency with a history of safety and rehabilitative failure. Cuts will exacerbate Corrections' woes and possibly undermine more than a decade of progress at DJJ ...

Corrections begs for reforms, but the state has shown no urgency to provide prisons with the staffing and programs it needs. Nor has the state made an effort to head off an overcrowding problem that will require either new facilities or an early release program.

As for DJJ, it cannot continue its landmark reforms without maintaining the wilderness camps it adopted as an effective alternative to incarceration ...

Finding ways to make needed cuts without compromising public safety or the ability of public safety agencies to carry out their critical missions is difficult business.

The challenge from Sanford has been made. But it should not include either Corrections or DJJ.